


Hermione’s Guide to Posting a story on Ao3

by hermiones_nook



Series: Hermione's Guide to Ao3 [2]
Category: No Fandom
Genre: how to, tutorial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 03:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20203348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermiones_nook/pseuds/hermiones_nook
Summary: Ever wondered how to post to Ao3? Wondered what all the fields are? What they mean? What makes a work explicit and not mature? What you have to tag? What all of the fields mean when you're posting a new work? Then read on!





	Hermione’s Guide to Posting a story on Ao3

**Author's Note:**

> Posting a story to Ao3 can look intimidating at first glance, but it is, in fact, very simple. With a few well-chosen words and tags, your fic will be easily found by all the right readers.  
We will go into further detail about making a good summary and tagging in other tutorials, so please save those questions for those works.

  
  
The first step, after creating your account, is to select “New Work” under the ‘Post’ tab in the top right-hand corner. 

Once selected, this will take you to the “Post New Work” page. This page is divided into sections, and we will take you through each section and what each field means and requires. 

**Tags:**

The tags section is where you select the information most pertinent to your fic. This is where you tell the readers what your fic contains and what they can expect. 

The first field is the **Rating field: **

** **

The Ratings work much like movie ratings. They warn the reader of the degrees of violence, sex, adult themes, drug use, etc they can expect to see in the fic you are posting. 

The Rating you choose will show in the top right square of the 4x4 box next to your fic. As you can see in this pic above, we selected the General audiences rating for our Tutorial on Posting in a Collection. 

The different ratings look like this: (We’ll talk about the other boxes as we go along)

General Audiences is for fics that you could read to a child. Think Disney. Not the Brothers Grimm. 

Teen is basically PG. Suitable for teenagers. May contain spooky scenes and small amounts of violence. Think, Home Alone, The first three Harry Potter movies. Jumanji. 

Mature is definitely considered adult content. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, (not so much that last one) but it is for themes you don’t want impressionable minds reading. This includes violence, major character death, horror, swearing, implicit rape, mentions of abortion, etc. 

Explicit is where the real descriptive stuff lies and what is generally considered the hardest category to differentiate between. Basically, it includes all of the Mature category, but on a descriptive level. If you are only mentioning drug use (for example) but you aren’t showing it. It’s considered mature. If you are showing exactly what they are doing and how they are doing it, it's explicit. Same goes for sex. You can have a couple getting hot an heavy on the couch, show some groping, frotting, heavy petting, and then fade to black where they wake up the next morning having done the deed, then it’s mature. As soon as you start mentioning body parts and what goes where, that’s when it becomes explicit.

The same for violence and any other adult topic. If you are merely mentioning it as a plot device, it’s mature. It’s the detail which makes it explicit. 

**Archive Warnings:**

** **

The above checkboxes are a quick indication of major triggers that people may want to avoid. 

‘Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings’ - is the selection you pick when your fic DOES contain one of the next five, but you do not want to provide ‘spoilers’ for your readers. 

‘Graphic Depictions of Violence’ - pretty self-explanatory, if your fic contains a blow by blow that could easily be at home in one of the ‘Saw’ movies. Please tick. (Also, if you tick this, you should definitely be selecting the explicit tag)

‘Major Character Death’ - this can be a tricky one. It refers to YOUR fic, not necessarily the fandom. Say you’re writing a Harry Potter/Pansy Parkinson story and you reference Dumbledores death. You do not need to tick. However, if this is a story in which Harry or Pansy die, tick like you mean it! 

‘No Archive Warnings Apply’ - It means that your story includes none of the other options. No underage, no rape or non-con elements, no MCD, no graphic violence. 

‘Rape/Non-Con’ - The first half of this selection you should all know, but the second part you may not be familiar with. Non-Con stands for No Consent. It could refer to two drunk/drugged people who have the inability to consent. A/B/O tropes, FuckorDie scenarios, SexPollen fics, the Aliens Made Us Do IT. The list goes on. Basically, unless your characters fully want to engage in hanky panky, or sweet, sweet love-making with no impairments to their judgement, it is considered Non-Con. 

This can be a grey area in those instances where two people are ‘getting intimate’ and don’t explicitly ask one another if they are sure but both seem to want it. But that’s your judgement call to make. 

Some will argue it’s easy to write in two lines, such as: 

“You want too?”  
“Yeah,” she said breathlessly. 

Others will say it takes the passion out of the moment. That is your decision, it’s your fic after all. 

This is how the Archive warnings will show in the 4x4 table for your fic.

**Fandoms: **

This is where you input the fandom/s your work belongs too. Please take note, you do not need to add a fandom if you are simply referencing it. If you use a quote or some objects (such as: “I’ll be back” or Thor’s Hammer) you do not need to put Terminator or Marvel into this field. If you really feel the need to, you can input this into the additional tags section. ‘References of “Insert fandom”.

But what if you’re writing a crossover? Or a fusion? Then include the fandoms! If you are using characters from more than one fandom than include those fandoms in this field. 

NOTE: This is not applicable to a story where you replace Fandom A’s characters with Fandom B. For example, you write the Hunger Games, but with all Harry Potter characters. For this, you would only tag the Harry Potter fandom in this field and then tag ‘Hunger Games AU’ in the additional tags field. 

**Categories:**

****

This is where you tick what applies to the romantic pairings in your story. 

F/F - for female/female relationships  
F/M - for female/male relationships  
Gen - for no pairings/relationships or relationships are not the primary focus of the fic.  
M/M - male/male relationships  
Multi - More than one relationship, or a relationship with more than two people.  
Other - Anything not covered by the above. 

NOTE: You do not have to choose a category if they do not apply. 

This is how the categories will show in the 4x4 table for your fic. 

**Additional tags: **

We will be doing a work that goes explicitly into how to tag, but we will outline a few general considerations here. 

This is the section where you put any information that would either draw in a reader, or turn them away (and yes you might want to do that deliberately) 

In this section, you can detail what you fic includes, tropes (A/B/O, coffee house, flower shop, forced marriage, one bed, etc) top or bottom characters if writing slash. Any influences you might have had (songfic, inspired by art, inspired by “insert movie”, Hunger Games AU) The genre of your fic, Angst, Drama, Fluff, Horror, etc. Some keywords that might interest your readers, Lordship AU, Auror Harry Potter, Creature Inheritance. 

Then there are the trigger warnings: suicide, rape, drug use, alcoholism, depression. Things that might cause anxiety in a reader. Remember, fandom and fanfictions should be safe places for people. If you don’t want to include these because of spoilers, please consider either: ticking the “Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings” or putting in a tag that says “Trigger warnings may apply”. 

NOTE: The additional tags field should not contain hundreds, or even tens of tags. It is not somewhere to put in every little thing your fic includes (Harry Potter wears a hat), or details about yourself (Author was sleep-deprived). As fun as they may sound, that is what the summary and author notes sections are for. 

Nobody likes a wall of tags. No-one. On top of that, the other tags you do include that aren’t fun and silly, will get lost. If you put in too many tags, you run the risk of TLDR and people simply scrolling past. Show the ankle, not the plunging neckline of your fic. In the case of tagging, less is more.

If a tag is not pertinent to your storyline, useful as a trigger warning, or something that someone might use as a search tool, consider not including it all. 

This brings us to the next section! The **Preface:**

** **

**Work Title**

Pretty simple, what is your fic called?

**Add co-creators?**

Were you the only one who worked on this fic? If not, check the box and add their name.  
NOTE: This does not include Alpha’s and Beta’s who you would normally thank in your author notes. (An Alpha is your sounding board, the person who goes: ‘That scene is great!’ or ‘Ooooo…. How about…’) (A Beta is someone who goes through your fic after and checks your spelling and grammar etc.)

**Summary: **

A great summary is everything. We will be doing a tutorial on how to write a great summary later. But for now, give us a glimpse of what to expect from your fic. A quick run down, perhaps with an intriguing question or premise? 

Whatever you do, please don’t just copy and paste an excerpt from your fic, or say ‘I suck at summaries, just read’. If you can’t be inclined to tell us what you’re fic is about, or deride your writing skills, why would anyone bother reading it?

**Notes: **

This is where you can leave notes for your readers, either at the beginning or end, or both! Feel free to wax poetic on any topic you want! Challenges you might have had writing this fic or chapter, include links to your social media pages, ask for comments or feedback. Talk about things that irk you in the fandom. Thank your Alpha and/or Beta, friends/partner for putting up with you while you wrote this. Gripe about the sleep you lost to your slave-driver of a muse. The amount of coffee you had as your bloodshot eyes and bleeding fingers typed out word after word. 

This is your word count free space to talk about any little thing that crosses your mind. 

Of course, you are also free to not say anything at all if you would prefer your fic to stand for itself. Simply leave the boxes unchecked if that is your wish. 

  
NOTE ON NOTES: Try to keep from rambling too much in your notes. Readers came for the fic, they generally won't read Author Notes if they are too long. 

**Associations:**

** **

**Post to Collections / Challenges**

This section is for any challenges or collections you would like to include your work in. We have a tutorial that explains that more in-depth here: [Hermione's Guide to Posting in a Collection](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20119225)

**Gift this work to**

In this field, you can enter a users or non-users name. Someone whom you write the fic for. If it is a non-user, it will show as text only. If it is a user, enter their name correctly and it will hyperlink their name to the fic as well as notify them of a gift work. 

Their name will appear on the fic under the byline. 

**This work is a remix, a translation, a podfic, or was inspired by another work**

** **

This section is where you can give credit to another fic or work that might have inspired yours. 

By filling these fields, you can create a hyperlink to what inspired you to write your fic. Be it another work on Ao3, a Tumblr post, an artwork on DeviantArt. Whatever it is you can credit it here. 

If it’s a translation for a fic in another language, check the box after you have filled in the info and Ao3 will take care of the rest. 

**This work is part of a series**

** **

A series is what it sounds like. You have more than one fic or works that pertain to the same storyline. Check this box and you can easily create or add to an existing series. 

**This work has multiple chapters**

** **

In this section, and if you check the box, you can select how many chapters your story has. If you don’t know, simply leave the question mark in place. This will automatically correct when you mark this fic as complete. 

You can also add chapter titles here. 

If it is a one-shot, leave the box unchecked and move on. This is not a permanent decision. You can change these settings at any time.

The last box in the 4x4 table shows if a work/fic is ongoing or completed. 

**Set a different publication date**

This is a neat little option, for a few reasons. The first being, if you decide to post a fic that you had written years ago, you can backdate it easily. It will still show as a new work, and alert your subscribers to the fact you have a new posting, but on your dashboard, it will show as an older work. 

The other nifty thing about this section, if you decide to update or revamp a chapter for whatever reason, if you change the publication date, your subscribers will get a notification as to that change as well. 

If you do nothing to this option, Ao3 will automatically assign the day’s date to your fic. 

**Choose a language**

I'm sure you’re all aware of what this means. 

**Select Work Skin**

Ao3 has the ability to change the way others view your work, and this is one of the ways to do it. 

We won’t go into a lengthy explanation of this, because really, there are not many who would care for the technical babble and jargon and overall lesson this would entail, let alone actually have the desire to do follow through on this. 

Essentially, you can create custom stylesheets, or "skins", for your works just like you can create skins for the Archive. The main difference is that work skins will change the way your work appears to other users, not just you.

Work skins will only affect the body of the work they are applied to—you can't change the Archive navigation or background with them. What you can do, however, is create your own classes. For instance, you can change the colour of some of your text, indent some paragraphs in a particular way, and so on.

If there are enough people interested in this, we will consider making a tutorial on how to do so. But there are guides on Ao3 FAQ’s as to how to go about it as well. 

**Privacy:**

** **

This section is where you can moderate who can see or comment on your story. You might consider one or more of these options if either, your work contains controversial topics, you don’t want your fic stolen, or to minimise trolls and negative comments.  
NOTE: These only apply to the individual work, not all works you create/have.

**Only show your work to registered users**

This option will only show your work to people who have an Ao3 account and are currently logged in. 

**Disable anonymous commenting**

Only logged in users will be able to make comments on this work in particular.

**Enable comment moderation**

If checked, this feature will make it so that all comments must be approved by you before they will publically appear. Generally, this is a good option to discourage trolls, as they know they will not get the attention they want from you or others. 

**  
** **Work Text**

This has two options. HTML and Rich Text. 

For those of you who don’t mind going through your fic line by line and adding computer code for every line break, bold text, italics, underlined, paragraphing, justifications etc. Kudos to you. HTML is the field for you. ;) 

For those of you (like me) who prefer to copy/paste from your written document, select the rich text field to do so. Your fic should paste beautifully and with minimal fuss. 

It is, of course, recommended to give a scroll through to be sure it is all to your liking. Sometimes, the justifications and page breaks do not always copy over exactly as they should, but they are easily fixed with the buttons on the top of the Rich Text field. 

Lastly, is the  **Post** section. 

Here you can preview, post or cancel your upload. If you select preview, you will also be given the option to save your work as a draft. Drafts are saved on Ao3 for exactly one month. If you do choose this option. You can also choose the post option from the preview option, you don’t have to go back again to do so. 

**Author's Note:**

> We hope this answers any of your questions about Posting to Ao3! If you have more, please leave a comment and we will get back to you as soon as we can. 
> 
> Your loving team at Hermione’s Nook


End file.
